Anaheim is the home of Disney Land, and Virginia Tech may have never left the park. 18 turnovers and 9/21 from the free throw line doomed the Hokies chances. Virginia Tech came into the game with an opportunity to take down two strong, non-conference opponents. UNLV made the big dance last year, and the Hokies had a great chance to build their resume. They didn’t. Tech jumped out to an early 9 point lead that was erased almost immediately. The Rebels never looked back. They took advantage of VT’s inability to play against the press defense, and took almost the full ten seconds to get the ball across the half court on nearly every possession.

Tech had too many fouls, too many missed shots, too many missed free throws, and too many missed chances. Tech stayed within striking distance the entire game, but could not make a move. Malcolm Delaney added 30 points, and made seven 3 point shots to lead all scorers, but one player cannot win games. Dorenzo Hudson continued to look off, and had 5 turnovers, including a couple clear mishandles that just were dribbled out of bounds. Jeff Allen played a great game down low, but was called for a couple of “questionable” fouls and ended up getting his fifth with about 8 minutes left.

The continuous theme is VT’s complete inablilty to score against the press and press zone defenses. There is a lack of control, and too many forced passes are the result. Tech loses about 8 seconds a possession in order to get the ball across mid court. With Cal State Northridge, OK State, and UNLV all using high press zones, the Hokies looked stagnant.

8th ranked Purdue comes to Blacksburg for the Big Ten/ACC challenge on Wednesday. The Boilermakers recently lost to upstart Richmond, but will be a great challenge for the Hokies. It is starting to look for a team that was picked 2nd in the AP ACC polls, that they need to win a big game, and fast. With two losses to teams that look to be far superior the Hokies are already looking to be a team looking in on top of that bubble. Thankfully, it is still November.